Habitats
This is part of A Time of Eclipse from the Core Book. With Earth now uninhabitable, transhumanity survives in a variety of offworld habitats. There are two major types of these habitats: settlements on planets or large moons, such as those on Luna, Mars, Venus, Europa, or Titan, and space habitats that are built on or near an asteroid or other useful source of raw materials. Most of these space habitats spin themselves to provide gravity, with Earth and Mars gravity being the two most common choices. There are also a large number of zero-g or microgravity habitats, consisting of either non-spinning habitats or stations built into small asteroids or moons. Planetary Settlements The Martian and Lunar city-states and other planetary settlements contain environments most familiar to refugees from Earth. This similarity is one reason that two-thirds of all infomorph refugees live on Mars, Luna, or Titan. The exact type of settlements depends on the planet or moon on which they are located, with some being far more similar to Earth cities than others. Most Lunar settlements, like those on Ganymede, Mercury, Titan, and Callisto, consist of a network of subsurface tunnels and chambers excavated with plasma drills. These tunnel settlements differ slightly from one world to the next. In most of these tunnel cities, the floors of all open areas and many dwellings are composed of genetically modified grass designed for both comfort and durability. Light panels cover the ceiling and provide bright full-spectrum lighting. A few of these buried cities further enhance their natural appearance with trees and, in some cases, specially engineered ecosystems, in both public areas and private dwellings. A few of these urban tunnel forests and jungles are home to numerous flowering vines and bright tropical butterflies. In a small number of settlements on both Titan and Luna, colonies of small monkeys and parrots with metabolisms and habits modified for modern ideas of cleanliness and sanitation thrive, giving some of these tunnel cities the feel of a buried jungle. All of the older or more prosperous tunnel cities also contain large open areas that are typically between one and twenty hectares, with ceilings at least ten meters high. Some are parks, others are public plazas, but all offer the residents of the tunnel cities a chance to experience open spaces. Also, with the exception of Mercury, all of these tunnel cities are on moons where gravity is no more than one-sixth of a g. Some of these open spaces are constructed with roofs between thirty and one hundred meters high and are designed so that residents can use them for flying by strapping on a pair of specially designed wings. The cloud cities of Venus are among the most unusual habitats in the solar system. Their exotic nature is enhanced by the chance to observe the many recently introduced floating and flying life forms modified to live in the clouds. Though located almost fifty kilometers above the most deadly environment in the solar system, life in these cloud cities is among the most Earth-like anywhere in the solar system, with gravity, temperatures, and atmospheric pressure all being very near normal Earth levels. By contrast, the settlements on Mars look the most like the cities of lost Earth, built on the surface rather than underground or in the skies. Some of the more recent settlements are designed for use by inhabitants in ruster morphs or synthmorphs and feature no life support. Older Martian cities and other settlements are typically covered with low domes of flexible polycarbonate and filled with a completely breathable, if somewhat low pressure, atmosphere. Some, however, are collections of sealed skyscrapers, connected by skywalks and tunnels. If current terraforming efforts continue on schedule, the last sealed Martian cities will be opened to an atmosphere breathable by standard biomorphs within sixty years. The most unusual planetary settlements are the ocean cities of Europa. These are among the most exotic locations in the entire solar system and are quite disorienting for individuals not used to underwater living. From a distance, most appear to be complex Christmas tree ornaments hanging down one hundred meters or more below the ice crust above. A few are built deeper, plunging under the icy surface near the various hydrothermal vents that host the native Europan life clusters. Many of the residents of the Europan cities find them familiar because they previously lived in one of the underwater cities on Earth and so were used to both the conditions and to living in an aquaticadapted body. Europan cities all contain sealed buildings with normal atmosphere, both because some activities work best in air instead of water and because the cities often host visitors without gills. However, these regions make up only ten percent or so of most of these cities. The remainder looks vaguely similar to many zero-g habitats, except that the structures are considerably sturdier and are located underwater. Buildings are designed to be accessible in all three dimensions, so going from one floor to another usually involves swimming out a large opening in the wall and down a level. In almost all of these aquatic cities, large fusion generators heat the surrounding water, so that the entire city exists in a region of water that is far warmer than the surrounding frigid Europan sea. Space Habitats With the exception of the private habitats of the wealthy and powerful described below, the vast majority of space habitats hold between twenty-five hundred and one million inhabitants. Almost two-thirds of these habitats were built during the first seven years after the Fall, when huge portions of the system’s surviving infrastructure were used to create habitats suitable for hundreds of millions of infugees. During this era, several thousand torus habitats and cluster colonies were created throughout the solar system. Many of these habitats were created by automated mining machinery that had been repurposed to create colonies. Due to the limitations of these automated mining rigs, most these habitats were small, holding between one thousand and one hundred thousand inhabitants. Twenty percent of the system’s inhabitants live in such habitats. During the past decade, various small organizations, cults, and subcultures have left the larger habitats they lived in and created their own small habitats, few of which were designed to hold more than ten thousand residents. The development of the new nanotech Hamilton cylinders has lead to a new interest in large habitats and in habitats that can easily expand in size to accommodate an increasing population. The expense and difficulty involved in expanding existing habitats or building new ones is one of the principle reasons that more than forty million infomorph refugees still do not posses morphs. Although none of the existing Hamilton cylinders has finished growing, they are both highly regarded by their residents. This same technology is also likely to produce a low-cost method for creating small habitats, where the creators merely need to seed an asteroid with the appropriate advanced nanotech generators and wait a few months. Scum Barges At the opposite extreme from the Hamilton cylinders are the infamous scum barges. Most are spacecraft built before or during the Fall that were used to help with the early stages of the evacuation, ferrying people away from the doomed Earth. Many of these refugee ships were unable to find anywhere to unload their transhuman cargo, becoming a sort of permanent traveling refugee camp, sometimes succumbing to mutinies. They eventually joined up with pre-existing scum ships and swarms, adopting their nomadic, free-wheeling, anarchistic lifestyle. In contrast to egocasting or the faster and more efficient fusion drive ships, so-called scum barges offer a floating city alternative to space travel. These ships function as roving black markets and carnivals of the bizarre—lawless zones where anyone can find whatever they want or need for the right rep or price. Most scum barges have fusion-powered plasma drives and hold between two hundred and five thousand inhabitants. The worst barges are exceptionally overcrowded, with aging life-support systems struggling to maintain a breathable (but still foul-smelling) atmosphere under the strain of too many passengers. The larger and more prosperous scum barges are often fitted with various modern conveniences, including large cornucopia machines and vast stores of pirated manufacturing templates. Some are thriving utopianist enclaves, while others are mobile dens of smugglers and thieves that would have been destroyed long ago except for the fact that large and powerful organizations find their existence occasionally useful. Living conditions on the scum barges range from overcrowded refugee camps or thriving, egalitarian anarchist enclaves to relatively modern habitats outfitted in barbaric splendor by successful organized crime gangs. A Diversity of Floating Worlds The use of cornucopia machines and smart materials means that the interiors of all but the poorest and most destitute habitats can be reshaped according to the whims of their inhabitants. When the number of inhabitants is small enough or their aesthetics are uniform enough to all share the same tastes, the results can be both unique and strange. Large-scale fads occasionally sweep through even the largest and most cosmopolitan habitats, making some of the bigger colonies almost as odd. Several habitats closely resemble terrestrial jungles, with an entire rainforest canopy growing from the slowly rotating outer shell and all dwellings and pieces of high technology nestled in the branches or hollows of these vast gene-engineered trees. In these living marvels, genetically engineered monkeys, iguanas, and tree sloths wander amidst the inhabitants — some of these creatures are wild animals, while others are controlled by AI servitors and act as maintenance or observation drones. Some habitats resemble other scenes from old Earth, including more than a dozen water-filled habitats hosting some of the aquatic inhabitants of the now-destroyed underwater cities. In most of these marine habitats, the actual buildings are either placed amidst a living coral reef filled with fish and other creatures or are actually built into the coral reef itself. There are many other habitats duplicating other environments, such as Afrique — a large Cole habitat with a population of two hundred thousand, where the habitat is made to resemble the African savanna. In Afrique, the two ends of the habitat are shaped into snow-capped mountains, and the inhabitants mostly live in several large cities built in the savannah. While nostalgia for Earth is a powerful force in habitat design, there are many other options. A few exotic habitats resemble fantastic cities from various vid games or older forms of entertainment, including a handful of small and eccentric habitats where the inhabitants all appear as strange humanoid alien beings. In many, the inhabitants have cosmetically modified themselves to fit in with the setting. One of the most common differences between small and large habitats is that the residents of smaller stations often share a common ideology or sense of aesthetics and so are far more eccentric. Some of the more unusual small habitats include dimly lit, spooky landscapes filled with perpetually leafless trees or thick, continually regenerating cobwebs, and other similar macabre touches. Others are gleaming colonies of shining citadels made from quartz and steel. Some are huge interconnected arcologies where any sort of personal privacy is rare, while in others every family or even every person has a separate dwelling that is rarely seen by outsiders. Since the populations of these stations are relatively small and the vast majority are not major economic centers, travel to and from these smaller habitats is infrequent, which further increases their insularity and idiosyncrasies. The Largest Habitats Extropia, the huge Martian city-states, and some of the largest Lunar stations hold between one million and twenty million inhabitants. There are many smaller settlements containing between one hundred thousand and one million residents. These habitats are considerably less idiosyncratic and exotic than the smaller colonies. Almost all contain a cosmopolitan and diverse population from a wide variety of subcultures. Because of this diversity and the difficulty of forming any sort of consensus with a large population, these settlements tend to be reminiscent of the cities of Earth. All of them have their own unique character and feel, but the differences between one habitat and another are rarely overwhelming. In addition, all of these stations are large enough to hold offices for all of the major hypercorps, who further promote uniformity by providing the same services from identical hypercorp offices. Since most of these habitats are major centers of commerce, travel between them is frequent, so there are various facilities for travelers such as hotels and sports clubs that help reduce the disorientation of travel by offering identical experiences, regardless of their location. Microgravity Habitats Zero-g habitats are very different from those that use rotational gravity. Most consist of networks of tunnels drilled through an asteroid—similar to the tunnel cities of Luna and Titan—but some are considerably more exotic. Like most other habitats, almost all microgravity colonies are built in, on, or next to one or more asteroids containing a large amount of useful raw materials. They typically feature a gravity less than 0.01 g that has very little effect on the daily lives of the inhabitants. Near-weightless environments allow for some interesting and unusual habitat designs as there is no up or down, enabling the creation of structures that would be too fragile even in low gravity. The habitats of Nova York, and Nguyen’s Compact are both examples of this, among many others. Private Habitats The most rare and exotic of all of the types of habitats are the luxurious private ones owned by exceedingly wealthy or high-rep individuals. Most private habitats are small but still give each of the residents several thousand cubic meters of personal space. A typical private habitat is either a cylinder one hundred fifty meters in diameter (the minimum necessary to produce Mars gravity at a rate of rotation slow enough to avoid problems in all morphs) and between fifty and two hundred meters long or a zero-g sphere one hundred to two hundred meters in diameter. These habitats are always tethered to a small collection of raw materials, consisting of chunks of silicate, nickel-iron, and water-containing carboniferous asteroids with a mass equal to at least that of the habitat. The majority of private habitats are inhabited by between half a dozen and three dozen morphs, most of which may be AIs or indentured servants. Life in a private habitat is exceptionally lavish. Almost every surface is made of formatible smart materials and there are several large general-purpose cornucopia machines available for the use of every resident. By using these nanofabricators and the smart materials to their fullest, residents can completely change the interior of the habitat in only a day or two—transforming a sterile and crystalline array of shining metal and glass buildings into a thriving forest, inhabited by a variety of wild animals. The mesh is filled with vids and XPs about the lives of the most famous residents of the solar system. Almost everyone has seen the interior of one of these vast space mansions many times, though only a tiny percentage of the inhabitants of the solar system will ever have a chance to actually visit such a location. Many gatecrashers, scavengers who travel to Earth, and others who engage in similarly daring endeavors hope to be able to obtain information or objects sufficiently valuable to allow them to retire to their own private habitat. Category:Setting Category:Core Book